Electronic devices, such as electronic book readers (“eBook reader devices”), cellular telephones, portable media players, desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers, netbooks, personal digital assistants, and the like, rely on electrical power to function.
Within these electronic devices, several components utilize significant amounts of power during operation, including the processor(s) and peripheral devices. These peripheral devices include external memory interfaces (EMIs), Universal Serial Bus (USB) controllers, image processing units (IPUs), and so forth. These peripheral devices may reside on the same “chip” or die as the processor and/or may reside on another die.
Inadvertent activation of the electronic device due to environmental factors may occur. For instance, devices may experience transient accelerations from jostling during transport and, in response, may activate or power up certain components of the device. For example, a box containing the electronic device may be dropped during shipment. Such a drop may inadvertently activate the device. During inadvertent activation, the electronic device consumes power, thus depleting power available in a battery powering the electronic device. A user that later attempts to use the electronic device may thus find the battery substantially or completely discharged. The user is therefore required to charge the device, a process which may be inconvenient and take several hours, depending upon the charger, battery capacity, and other parameters.
While mechanical switches with high activation forces may mitigate this problem, these solutions introduce other problems. For instance, design and engineering constraints, such as available volume, ability to control the device, and so forth, may preclude device designers from including such mechanical switches in electronic devices. Furthermore, such an approach may render inoperable a real-time clock of the device, introducing adverse side effects with regard to digital rights management (DRM).